[Egypt Independent] The Court of Cassation said it set a date in May to investigate the prosecution's appeal against a criminal court's ruling to acquit defendants accused of sending men onhorses and camels to attack protesters in Tahrir Square during the 2011 uprising, known as the "Battle of the Camel."

State news agency MENA quoted Abdel Jawad Morsy, a senior judge who heads the regulatory office at the Court of Cassation, as saying that the session would be held on 8 May.

The court received a memorandum Wednesday from the Central Cairo Prosecution to challenge the ruling, MENA said. The memo lists the reasons behind the appeal.

The Cairo Criminal Court, located in the Fifth Settlement and headed by Judge Mostafa Hassan Abdallah, acquitted on 10 October all 24 defendants accused of killing protesters during the Battle of the Camel on 2 and 3 February 2011.

The court said it acquitted all the defendants, who were involved in a trial that lasted for almost a year, because witness testimonies were based on hearsay and grudges against defendants over parliamentary elections.

[Egypt Independent] Amr Moussa, former Arab League chief, said Sunday that the National Salvation Front -- the largest opposition coalition -- respects the legitimacy of President Mohamed Morsy and does not seek to overthrow him.

But Moussa added that Popular Current movement founder Hamdeen Sabbahi is calling for earlier presidential elections.

"We do not talk about Morsy's legitimacy, but rather about his credibility in dealing with the problems of the ordinary Egyptian citizen," Moussa said. "We are against his policies, and just as he is legitimate, the opposition is too," he said.

Sabbahi, meanwhile, denied that he called for early elections.

NSF spokesperson Ahmed al-Borai said the front is only against a single political faction monopolizing power.

[EDITION.CNN] Members of the president's party in Tunisia will quit the coalition government, the state-run news agency...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... TAP reported Sunday.

The move threatens to worsen a political crisis, set off after an opposition leader was assassinated there last week.

The Congress for the Republic Party, which counts Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki among its ranks, has three ministers and two secretaries of state in the government, TAP reported.

The five officials will "continue to shoulder their responsibilities within their respective departments to avoid any administrative vacuum," TAP said, citing Chokri Yacoub, a party leader.

The news comes one day after Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he would step down if a caretaker government he is forming fails to win approval from Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly.

In response to the shooting death of Chokri Belaid, Jebali sacked his government and said he would appoint a new one to serve until the next election.

However,it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... a top official of Jebali's own Ennahda party labeled Jebali's moves "non-binding," raising questions about his leadership.

Belaid, a prominent secular politician who decried violence, was rubbed out as he left his home Wednesday morning for work. No one has grabbed credit for the attack, but Belaid's widow and others blamed the climate fostered by Jebali's Ennahda party.

Jebali denied that Ennahda had anything do with Belaid's killing and said he hoped to get approval for his new government from his party and others.

"The government, I feel, is backed by a lot of people, mainly among ordinary people. I hope that political parties will translate the view of our people," Jebali said Friday.

As he spoke, thousands of Tunisians demonstrated in the streets of the capital in outrage over the liquidation, calling on Jebali to resign.

The killing of Belaid was the country's first high-profile political liquidation since Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution" that toppled President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali two years ago and spawned the Arab Spring.

[Egypt Independent] The Muslim Brotherhood has nominated one of its senior leaders for the influential position of grand mufti, the nation's top cleric, defying critics who accuse the Islamist group of seeking to dominate all institutions.

Islamic scholars chaired by the head of the ancient seat of learning, Al-Azhar, are due to pick a new mufti Monday from a shortlist of three candidates and send their choice to President Mohamed Morsy to approve.

The mufti is empowered to issue opinions, or fatwas, on any matter, influencing legislation on social and cultural issues, public behavior and court rulings.

The selection falls on the second anniversary of the resignation of veteran President Hosni Mubarak, ousted by a pro-democracy uprising. Several organizations have called anti-Morsy protests on the same day.

The leading candidate is Abdel Rahman al-Barr, 50, a member of the Brotherhood's decision-making Supreme Guidance Council who was jailed under Mubarak and helped draft a new constitution adopted in December that expanded Islamic oversight.

His appointment would tighten the conservative Brotherhood's grip on power, replacing liberal-minded preacher Ali Gomaa, 61, who had publicly condemned radical fatwas, including some issued by Brotherhood supporters.

The mufti serves until he reaches retirement age at 60. Gomaa was granted a one-year extension by the military council that ruled Egypt until Morsy was elected last year.

"Barr is the most likely choice as it reflects the change the scholars' panel has undergone since Mursi came to power as about 70 percent of its members are either Brotherhood or [hardline] Salafis," political scientist Mostafa al-Sayed said.

"However,the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... such a selection will fuel more public anger and show the Brotherhood lacks the vision to see the impact of such a decision on the stability of the country," he told Reuters. "It also shows more growing influence of Islamists in Egypt."

In an interview with Reuters last June, Barr said Muslims should be barred from both buying and selling alcohol, but that Muslim women should not be compelled by law to wear headscarves.

Asked to confirm that he had been nominated, Barr told Reuters: "I neither sought nor asked for this job and I only knew about it from the newspapers."

However,a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... he added that he would set out his religious views in a one-hour interview with state TV Monday.

A top official in the mufti's office, Dar al-Ifta, said Barr was the most likely pick and the Brotherhood had been grooming him since last year.

Egyptian consumer prices last month posted the biggest increase in more than two years after the pound weakened to a record and foreign reserves slid. Prices rose 1.7 percent compared with 0.2 percent in the previous month, according to the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The annual rate climbed to 6.3 percent from 4.7 percent, the data show. High prices were one of the reasons that triggered the 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

But it's cool now that the Muslim Bruderbünd is in charge...

The pound has weakened 7.8 percent against the dollar since Dec. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as the central bank started capping the amount of dollars each lender can buy at currency auctions. The regulator said the policy seeks to conserve reserves, which have plunged more than 60 percent since the revolt to $13.6 billion last month.

Reserves have plunged because tourists aren't coming to Egypt: among other reasons, female Western tourists don't like being sexually assaulted on the streets of Cairo.

The trend is expected because of the devaluation but the magnitude is above expectations, said Mona Mansour, chief economist at Cairo-based investment bank CI Capital, who has forecast an annual inflation rate of about 5.8 percent. We see more inflationary pressures because we are expecting further devaluation for the currency.

The currency crisis may prompt the central bank to raise interest rates by as much as 200 basis points, or 2 percentage points, this year to stabilize the pound and tame inflation, Mohamed Abu Basha, an economist at Cairo-based investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, wrote in a report on Feb. 6.

Food prices rose 2.5 percent on the month, while the costs of tobacco and alcoholic beverages climbed 7.7 percent, according to CAPMAS data.

I thought alcoholic beverages were forbidden in a Muslim state...

Core inflation, which excludes some food items and regulated products, accelerated to an annual rate of 5.23 percent in January from 4.44 percent a month earlier, according to central bank data released today.

Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) used a two-storey building on the edge of the ancient city as a sophisticated training centre which continued operating until it was destroyed by a French air strike three weeks ago.

America and its allies have tried to make it impossible for al-Qa'ida to run permanent, dedicated training camps. After years of effort, they had come close to eradicating any centres of this kind. But in Timbuktu, AQIM managed to run this training centre uninterrupted for about nine months.

Moreover, it consciously followed the example of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Just as he gathered volunteers from across the Muslim world, so AQIM amassed a multinational array of recruits at its camp in Timbuktu.

Along with Malians, there were Pakistanis, Algerians and Mauritanians. But the biggest contingent of foreign trainees were Nigerians, all of them members of Boko Haram, a particularly violent group. Their presence vindicates a claim by Nigeria's government that AQIM has forged a strategic alliance with Boko Haram.

When AQIM captured Timbuktu last March, the movement took over the facilities abandoned by Mali's security forces. The local headquarters of the Gendarmerie Nationale, a paramilitary unit, was soon turned into a training camp.

Most legal proceedings in Saudi Arabia take place behind close doors. Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer, and may be convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under torture or other ill-treatment, duress or deception. In many cases they are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them.

Saudi Arabia has a high rate of executions. In 2011 at least 82 executions took place; more than triple the figure of at least 27 executions in 2010. In 2012, a similar number of people were executed.

Out of the 10 executed in the first five and half weeks of 2013, four were executed for drug related offences, and four were foreign nationals, including Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, who was only 17 at the time of her alleged crime. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Saudi Arabia is prohibited from imposing the death penalty on persons who were under 18 years old at the time of the alleged offence for which they were convicted.

Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of crimes, including drug offences, apostasy, sorcery and witchcraft. Such offences do not fall into the category of most serious crimes embodied in international standards, which require that the scope of crimes punishable by death must be limited to those involving intentional killing.

[Yemen Post] As Yemen-Iran arm smuggling crisis is gaining momentum with the involvement of the UN Security Council, Yemen Foreign Minister Abu Baqr al-Qirbi challenged Tehran further on Sunday by demanding an explanation.

"The Yemeni government will not allow interference in its internal affairs from any party, or for its territories to become a site for proxy wars," he told Iran's ambassador to Sana'a, Mahmud Hassan Zada, stressing he will need Iran to explain just its weapons ended up on a ship bound for Yemen.

So far the government is adopting the theory that Iran is arming the Houthis - Shia rebel group based in the northern province of Sa'ada - in a bid to counterweight Saudi Arabia's involvement in Yemen and assert its own influence over the region.

It is important to note that the belief of an Iranian/Shia plot in the Arabian Peninsula has been driven for the most part by Saudi Arabia's belief, or shall we say al-Saud's belief Shiite Iran is seeking to overtake Sunni Islam.

And since the Houthis sit directly south of Saudi Arabia's borders with Yemen, the fact the tribe shares Iran's religious and political stance one can understand how troublesome a military alliance between the two would be for the kingdom.

Yemen's National Security Chief, Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi warned against Saturday of Iran's ill intents in Yemen telling reporters in Sana'a, the capital "Such a shipment cannot be made by traders or smugglers... Only an official power stands behind it," and "We have repeatedly urged our brothers in Iran to reassess their stances towards Yemen. They had always denied any interference, but this shipment sadly affirms that they insist on damaging Yemen."

Politicians close to the Houthis have argued that al-Ahmadi was less than objective on the matter since his agency was directly under the control of the United States of America, which for tactical and economic reasons was supporting Saudi Arabia''s claims against Iran.

[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... yesterday termed the countrywide demonstrations, including the Shahbagh one, a government plot to create anarchy in the country and force the tribunals to deliver verdicts as per its dictate.

The government was conspiring to create hatred against the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... from the gatherings of their party activists, Jamaat acting secretary general Moulana Rafiqul Islam Khan said in a statement.

The party also announced to stage demonstrations across the country tomorrow for what it said to protest against the countrywide anarchy patronised by the government to implement its political agenda.

The demonstration is meant for pressing home their various demands, including dismantling of the war crimes tribunals, releasing the party's top leaders facing war crimes charges and restoration of the caretaker government system.

In the statement, Rafiqul said, "I strongly condemn and protest the government's ill move to create anarchy in the country through its patronage to make its petty political gains."

The countrywide movement began after a war crimes tribunal on Tuesday sentenced Jamaat leader Quader Mollah to life term in prison for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

Hours after the verdict, a mass uproar started at Shahbagh intersection in the capital when an online activists' group gave a call through online social networks to wage protests against the verdict.

It continued for the sixth day yesterday amid spontaneous participation of several thousands pro-liberation activists.

In the statement, Rafiqul alleged that since formation of the tribunals, the ruling party MPs, ministers and leaders had been commenting on execution of top Jamaat leaders to run the tribunal proceedings as per the government's own plan.

"We want to clearly state that the people of the country won't let the government implement its plot chalked out to take its political Dire Revenge™," he said.

The Jamaat leader also sought cooperation from the countrymen, party leaders and activists to make their tomorrow's programme a success.

[Bangla Daily Star] The government tables today a proposal for amending the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act-1973 to provide for appeal against inadequate sentence in war crimes cases.

Finalised yesterday, the proposal also envisages hearing and disposal of an appeal within 60 days from the date of its filing with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

There is no mention of time limit in the law for disposing of the appeal in the cases involving the crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971.

Interpreting the proposed amendment, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told The Daily Star yesterday that the Appellate Division will dispose of an appeal within 45 days from the date of its filing. If the apex court still cannot complete the disposal, it will get another 15 days.

He said any appeal against an ICT verdict has to be filed with the Supreme Court within 30 days from the date of delivery of the verdict as per the existing provision.

Earlier in the day, Shafique Ahmed told news hounds at his office in Bangladesh Secretariat that a bill will be placed before parliament within a week if the cabinet approves the proposed amendment.

He hoped the House will pass the bill in its current session.

The government, any aggrieved person or victim can file appeal against inadequate sentence or acquittal order given by the tribunal to any accused, as per the proposed amendment.

[Bangla Daily Star] Shahbagh protesters yesterday submitted a six-point charter to the Speaker, demanding death penalty for all war criminals, including Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, and revocation of the state's power to grant them amnesty.

A five-member delegation of Bloggers and Online Activist Network that initiated the protest met Speaker Abdul Hamid at his office in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban and placed their demands.

The other demands include an amendment to the International Crimes Tribunal Act, allowing appeals against inadequate punishment and disposal of appeals from both the defence and the prosecution within three months of their filing.

The collaborators, who had been either convicted or under trial but set free from jail after political changeover following the coup on August 15, 1975, must be brought to book, the protesters said.

Abdul Hamid said he would send copies of the charter to Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide..., Leader of Opposition in Parliament Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... and other ministers concerned for taking necessary actions.

This is the first formal move by the bloggers and online activists since they occupied the capital's Shahbagh intersection on February 5 in protest at an international crimes tribunal awarding Quader Mollah life term instead of capital punishment.

The Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden has broken his silence, recounting in an interview the three bullets he pumped into the al-Qaeda leader and the financial anxiety he now faces as an unemployed civilian.

The commando kept his identity secret in the Esquire magazine profile but revealed his role in the daring May 2011 raid for the first time, as well as the worries he has for his family's security.

"He looked confused. And way taller than I was expecting," the SEAL says of bin Laden

When the commandos came upon bin Laden on the third floor of his Pakistani hideout, the al-Qaeda mastermind had his hands on his youngest wife's shoulders, "pushing her ahead" and there was an AK-47 nearby.
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"I don't know if she's got a vest and she's being pushed to martyr them both. He's got a gun within reach. He's a threat. I need to get a head shot so he won't have a chance to clack himself off (blow himself up)," the commando says.

"In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he's going down.

"He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! same place.

"He was dead. Not moving. His tongue was out."

Another Navy SEAL who took part in the raid, Matt Bissonnette, offered the first eyewitness account last year in a book titled, No Easy Day, which drew the ire of Pentagon officials, who accused him of breaking a pledge not to disclose classified information.

#1
Sad, very sad. We're missing something somewhere in the recruitment, training, and operations regime. This type of disclosure, book writing, story telling is not good for the community or future operations. I wish it would stop!

Press TV had broadcast in North America on the Galaxy 19 satellite platform. The channel did not say when it was dropped.

New sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department this week blacklisted the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and its director, Ezatollah Zarghami, which oversees Iran's broadcast channels.

Press TV said in a statement on Friday evening that its being dropped from Galaxy 19 was a "flagrant violation of freedom of speech."

In October, the Gay Paree-based Eutelsat, one of Europe's leading satellite providers, cut Iranian state television... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
and radio broadcasts to comply with tougher European Union...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... sanctions on the Islamic Theocratic Republic.

[Dawn] Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (F) chief Maulana Fazlur RehmanDeobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has gone to Qatar to hold talks with the Taliban, revealed Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a leader of the party and general secretary of the Milli Yakjehti Council, on Saturday.

Speaking at a condolence reference for Jamaat-e-Islami...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad... third president (19872009) of the PakJamaat-e-Islami. Qazi was also head of the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal until his ego became bigger than the organization. Qazi is what is known as a fiery preacher, which means he has lots of volume, a good delivery, and not a lot of reverence for coherence. He was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasool Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden during the war against the Soviets. He used to recommend drinking camel's urine to maintain good health before his kidneys started to go... here, he urged the government and the army to take the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's talks offer seriously and initiate a dialogue to ensure a peaceful atmosphere during the general election.

But contrary to the statement by Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a front man for JUI-F, Abdul Jalil Jan, told Dawn in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. that Maulana Fazl had gone abroad on a private visit.

According to the western media, the US is in contact with the Taliban in Qatar to persuade the turban group to initiate negotiations with the Afghan government as Washington prepares for the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Hafiz Hussain did not disclose on whose behalf Mr Rehman had gone to Doha.

However,nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... he said the JUI-F was playing a pivotal role in the grinding of the peace processor and the maulana was in Qatar to advance the process.

He said the use of force was no solution to the conflict between the Taliban and the military and urged them to sit on the negotiating table to restore peace in the region.

The Jamaat's deputy Amir, Sirajul Haq, said the government was looking towards the US for a signal after the negotiation offer by the Taliban. "The government is not sincere in peace negotiations and is waiting for dictation from Americans."

He said if the US could hold talks with the Taliban why Pakistain could not do so.

[Dawn] A local court on Saturday issued non-bailable warrants for Maulana Abdul Aziz, Khateeb Lal Masjid, and four witnesses, including a police officer.

The orders were passed after the court found the above mentioned individuals absent during the proceedings of a case involving harassment of owners of CD shops.

Important to note that after acquittal from 26 cases, the only case pending against Maulana Aziz is the said case, which is also in its final stage.

Shehzad Khan civil judge cum judicial magistrate resumed hearing of the case registered against Maulana Aziz and his other associates in April 2007 for threatening the owners of CD shops and forcibly closing their businesses in F-7 Markaz and Aabpara Market.

The order was passed, when during the hearings, it transpired that neither Maulana Aziz nor any of the witnesses, including a deputy superintendent of police Mohammad Ashraf Shah were present in the court.

The judge expressed annoyance over the absence of the accused and the witnesses of the case and issued the warrants.

However,some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... Maulana Wajihullah, counsel of Maulana Aziz, appeared before the judge and informed that the holy man because of other engagements was not in Islamabad and, therefore, could not appear in the court.

The counsel assured the court that Maulana Aziz would appear in the court on the next date of hearing.

The judge, however, issued the non-bailable arrest warrants for Maulana Aziz as well as for the witnesses and adjourned the matter till February 14.

It may be mentioned that Maulana Aziz has been acquitted in over two dozen cases in the last couple of years.

These cases were registered against the holy man in 2007, when relations between Lal Masjid and the government deteriorated and led to the July 3 operation.

Among them the famous cases registered against the holy man were of abducting Aunti Shamim and her daughter, abduction of police officials and seizing of official vehicles, launching FM Radio without obtaining prior permission of the government, CD burning case, killing of a Rangers official and sabotaging and damaging government property.

[Dawn] Police authorities have decided to send CCTV (closed-circuit television) camera footage, showing two attackers firing at a van that resulted in the death of two holy mans and a student of the Jamia Banori Uloom Islamia, to a foreign probe body after local Sherlocks failed to determine the identity of the assassins who rode away after executing the job off Sharea Faisal, it emerged on Saturday.

Sources privy to the development said the authorities reached the decision after multiple examinations of the footage by the police Sherlocks employing different sources and services of different institutions failed to achieve a breakthrough.

"An investigation team headed by the DIG east has finally decided to hire services of a foreign institution and in this regard also received a nod from the higher authorities," said a source while explaining progress in the investigation of the case.

"The institution whose services can be hired is not yet finalised but there are some very credible investigation bodies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] and the British Scotland Yard. The main objective of the entire exercise is to determine the identity of the attackers through their faces, as our Sherlocks remained unable to do so."

The police officer tasked with the investigation was expected to finalize the name of the foreign probe body within a day or two, he said.

The source said the footage was likely to be sent to the foreign Sherlocks within a week after which progress could be made on these lines.

On Jan 31, two teachers and a student of the Jamia Banori Uloom Islamia were bumped off in the attack on their van on Sharea Faisal. The victims included 50-year-old Sheikh-ul-Hadees Mufti Abdul Majeed Deenpori, the senior most faculty member of the seminary, his 40-year-old deputy Mufti Saleh Mohammad and 33-year-old student Ahsan Ali Shah.

The attack took place on a stretch of the thoroughfare between the Nursery bus stop and the Finance and Trade Centre (FTC) along the block-B of Sindhi Moslem Cooperative Housing Society. The chilling images of the shooting were caught on a CCTV camera installed at a private facility in front of which the brutal attack was carried out. The footage showed three assailants escaping on a cycle of violence after attacking the van which was on the left track of the road.

Amid ongoing sectarian killings, the incident came in the limelight after religious groups gave a strike call to protest against the attack and press the authorities to immediately arrest the killers.

The sources said it was the first case of such killings in the city that convinced the authorities to take foreign Sherlocks on board.

"There are two major reasons behind that initiative," said the source.

"Firstly, there was no such piece of evidence (CCTV footage) available in any case of assassination in the past. Secondly, the incident itself became high-profile as it included the killing of one of the top holy mans.

"It may set a precedent or encourage the authorities to acquire technology that could help Sherlocks make use of such footage."

[Dawn] Legal complications have delayed a Pak team's visit to India, scheduled for the second half of the current month, for recording statements of four Indian witnesses to the 2008 Mumbai attacks after the defence counsel sought written assurances for cross-examination of the witnesses.

On Feb 2, the FIA had filed an application in the Anti-Terrorism Court, seeking permission to join the proceedings of the commission constituted by the Mumbai High Court under Indian judge Amer Ahmed Khan to record statements of the witnesses against seven Pak suspects.

The Indian authorities had asked Pakistain to send a panel of lawyers in February for recording the statements of R.V. Sawant Waghule, who had recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab; Ramesh Mahale, chief investigation officer of the case; and doctors Ganesh Dhunraj and Chintaman Mohite, who had conducted post-mortem of the forces of Evil killed during the attacks.

Khawaja Harris, defence counsel for the alleged criminal mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, informed the ATC on Saturday that Indian government's letter about recording the statements lacked clarity. It did not mention whether the witnesses would be cross-examined or not, he pointed out.

He said the proceedings of last year's Mumbai commission had been declared illegal by the ATC because the defence team had not been allowed to cross-examine the witnesses.

Riaz Cheema, another defence counsel, told Dawn that governments of Pakistain and India had agreed on Nov 5, 2010 to exempt the witnesses from cross-examination.

He said when the defence counsel sought to cross-examine the witnesses during the proceedings of the Mumbai commission presided over by S. S. Shinde, the Indian prosecutor produced a letter containing details of the Nov 5, 2010 agreement. "Consequently, the commission did not allow us to cross-examine the witnesses," he said.

"We will not join the proceedings of the commission unless the Indian and Pak authorities cancel the letter and assure us in writing that we will be allowed to cross-examine the witnesses," he said.

Earlier in March 2012, another Pak panel -- including special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali and counsel for the suspects -- had recorded statements of the witnesses but had not cross-examined them.

Chaudhry Zulfiqar told Dawn that the Indian government had agreed in principle to allow the cross-examination but the defence counsel wanted the assurance in writing.

"The counsel do not want timely disposal of the case and their recent request is part of their strategy to make the case linger on," he said.

He said the case should be decided without further delay because it had strained relations between Pakistain and India and countries like the UK, the US and Canada, whose nationals had been killed in the attacks, were also keenly awaiting the outcome of the over four-year-old case.

[Bangla Daily Star] The Taliban are neither serious nor sincere about peace talks with the government, Pak interior minister Rehman MalikPak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. said.

The minister's remarks came after Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan offered "conditional" talks and called for the release of two former spokesmen Maulvi Said Umer and Mohammedan Khan, Xinhua reported.

The front man said the two will lead the Taliban negotiation team.

Malik said the Taliban's offer for dialogue was "suspicious" and that Ehsan has no credibility.

#1
Why should they - the DemoLefties + Globalists are getting anything + everything they want in the US. Ditto for Radical Islam or the Radicalist agenda vee the various "Arab/Islamic/
Muslim Springs".

THE TIDE/WAVE IS CURREN IN THEIR FAVOR, WID THEIR DEDICATED OPPONENTS AS A CLASS EITHER IMPOTENT, COWERED, OR COLLUSORY TO THEIR INTEREST.

The Maha-Rushian questionne' is what do their Opponents get for doing or being so.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.